Supreme Court allows Missouri to proceed with the execution of death row inmate Marcellus Williams

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Tuesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state to proceed with its plan to execute him, rejecting a last-ditch request to intervene on his behalf. The justices rejected two separate appeals to spare Marcellus Williams’ life, over the objection of Liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, a day after the Missouri Supreme Court and Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined to step in on Williams’ behalf. This undated booking photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Marcellus Williams. Photo credit: Missouri Department of Corrections via The Associated Press Williams, 55, has long maintained innocence in the 1998 death of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former newspaper reporter who was repeatedly stabbed during a burglary of her suburban St. Louis home. The execution is opposed both by Gayle’s family and the prosecutor’s office that put Williams on death row — an unprecedented combination. “The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live,” the clemency petition stated. “Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.” Williams is among& inmates in five states& who are scheduled to be executed in the...